DISCLAIMER: This episode contains information about suicide. If you or a loved one is thinking about suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (Lifeline) at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text the Crisis Text Line (text HELLO to 741741). Both services are free and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All calls are confidential. You can also call 911.

In today’s episode, Avni Kulkarni and Sania Ali head to the emergency department (ED) to learn how our nation’s safety net is struggling to keep up with the increasing demand for emergency psychiatric treatment. They learn about the boarding crisis through the lens of a clinician discussing how they decide which patients need inpatient admission and what tools they can use to treat mental health crises.

Guests on this episode include Shilpa Patel and Meghan Schott from Children's National Hospital.

While We Wait was produced by Sania Ali and Avni Kulkarni for Health Affairs.

Theme music by Tommy Scanlon.

Related Links:

• Emergency Department Length-Of-Stay For Psychiatric Visits Was Significantly Longer Than For Nonpsychiatric Visits, 2002-11 (Health Affairs)
• Psychiatric Boarding In US EDs: A Multifactorial Problem That Requires Multidisciplinary Solutions (Center for Health Care Quality) 
• Computerized Adaptive Screener May Help Identify Youth At Risk For Suicide (National Institutes of Health)
• IMPACT DC Asthma Clinic
• National Alliance on Mental Illness